Polls show rave reviews for SOTU

Americans responded with overwhelming positivity to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, two polls conducted after the Tuesday night speech found.

In a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll of 475 adults who watched the speech, 52 percent of respondents said they had a very positive reaction to Obama’s message. An additional 32 percent said their reactions were somewhat positive. Just 15 percent responded negatively to the speech.

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Last year, 78 percent of those surveyed after Obama’s State of the Union address reported a positive reaction, while 21 percent said they perceived the speech negatively.

The speech, which included a roadmap for “winning the future,” also improved Americans’ outlook on the direction the country is headed. Before the speech, 61 percent said his policies would lead the country in the right direction. Afterward, 77 percent did.

Ninety-one percent of those who watched the speech said they approved of the proposals that Obama made, while 9 percent said they disapproved, a CBS News poll found. Last year, 83 percent of viewers approved of the proposals Obama made in his speech.

At least temporarily, the address seemed to improve Americans’ views on a handful of major policy issues. Before the speech, 53 percent approved of Obama’s plans on the economy; afterward, 82 percent said they did. The president’s plans on the federal deficit moved from an approval rating of 45 percent before the speech to 80 percent after.

Those surveyed by CBS News also were optimistic that symbolism of Republicans and Democrats sitting side-by-side for the speech would translate into bipartisan cooperation, with 62 percent saying they expected to see the parties work together in Congress.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted by phone on Tuesday night and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

CBS News polled a scientifically representative group of 500 speech-watchers in the minutes after Obama finished speaking. The error margin for that survey was plus or minus 4 percentage points.